Daniil Kvyat believes Toro Rosso must be wary of its “sensitive” Renault-powered STR12, commenting that it is tricky to keep the car in a “happy window.”
Kvyat finished in ninth place at the preceding event in Spain but qualified at the back of the grid, pointing to small set-up changes that cost him a substantial bulk of time.
Kvyat reckons Toro Rosso needs to be careful with any small tweaks it makes, in case it has drastic consequences around the streets of Monaco this weekend.
“Our car is too sensitive to small changes,” he commented.
“So [we fell] completely out of the window and as a consequence we paid a very high price, it’s hard to keep the car in a happy window and that’s what happened in Spain.
“There’s still no 100 per cent answers to that, and in the race everything came back to it and it was a much more driveable car, but I prefer to start ahead and finish ahead than to make my way through.
“I certainly also have to keep an eye on what everyone’s doing as the car is so sensitive we need to be careful with everything we do, and is still a bit of a mystery somehow.”
Kvyat also reckons power unit supplier Renault can now afford to focus on performance, having prioritised reliability during the opening stages of the campaign.
“The basic package seems good, so far there has been some [reliability problems] but not so much, now it’s quite consistent,” he said.
“So I believe that now they will start focusing on performance as that’s what we really need.”
